Seeding the music libraries.

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Over the last few years I, probably like most, have gotten overwhelmed with uploading music to the various libraries as well as tagging and writing descriptions for each piece. Every library’s requirements and procedures are different which only adds to an already time consuming process.

Initially the tendency was to get as much music out in the marketplace, to as many libraries as possible. It did get a bit crazy though and the end result would be that many times it wouldn’t get done. I finally came up with a routine that makes it all much less frantic.

I now only work with 5 or 6 libraries so I assign each one to a day of the week and only upload one song, per week, to each library. That gives me plenty of time to focus on that one piece of music and give it my best effort as it pertains to each library’s requirements. A much more relaxed way to do it, at least for me. I feel I have a few more years left in me so I’m in no rush and it leaves me plenty of time to write and have a life!

How about you? What’s your routine?

TuneSat Announces Low-Price Service for Small Publishers

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I got this press release from the folks at Tunesat and thought some of you might be interested. Full disclosure: They are an advertiser on MLR but I was (and still am) a client, long before they became an advertiser here.

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TuneSat, an audio monitoring service aiding music copyright holders track song use on television, has put together a low-price offer for smaller publishers.
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Money For Nothing – Chicks For Free

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A thread popped up over at Jungle Punks about making music and getting paid for it. I think we can all agree that we got into music for the love of it but we all want to be paid and we all expect to be paid. How much we get paid is something else again. Regardless, I think most of us would continue to make music if money was suddenly taken out the equation.

I’ve moved those comments over here.

Composers – Beware of HGTV, The Cooking Channel, Food Network, DIY, Travel Channel, any Scripps Networks Shows

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Why should you, as a composer care? From what I have learned, and experienced, Scripps demands that all of the music for it’s shows be “direct licensed”. In other words they do NOT pay any performance royalties to composers. How do they get their music? Most likely from libraries that do a blanket license with the shows producers which, in most cases, means that you, as a composer, will not share in any of those blanket license fees. To be fair Scripps is not the only company that refuses to pay PRO monies. I believe ESPN is another company and their are probably more.

How will you know if your music is being used on these shows? You will probably never know unless you happen to be watching and recognize your music or have a Tunesat account. Occasionally these shows will air internationally and you will see some performance monies though it will be miniscule. This makes it more insulting as they do not have to pay in the U.S. but are forced to in other countries.

Music libraries have different points of view on this dilemma. Some refuse to work for any shows that air on Scripps Network. Others feel that because some production companies have shows on both Scripps and non-Scripps networks they they have to take the bad with the good. One library has gone so far as to start paying their composers a small royalty for any Scripps shows that happens to use their music. Certainly a step in the right direction and I applaud them. But really, shouldn’t Scripps be stepping up to the plate? I think the lack of respect for composers and their music is appalling!

Your thoughts?

Production Music Union For Composers

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I received an e-mail from one of the composers on MLR suggesting that I would be in a good position to try and form a production music union for composers. As he rightly points out actors, musicians, makeup artists, production crews have unions (with varying degrees of success I might add). I responded to his e-mail that it would be a daunting task and I would rather be writing music! I do think it’s an interesting idea and worthy of a post to at least start a conversation. So… Have at it!

Emmett Cooke’s Tagging Software

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Something we all need is an easy way to tag our music. To the uninitiated tagging and describing your music effectively is critical. This will ensure that your music will be returned in the search of a database when a client is looking for a particular style and feel. Emmett is working on a solution and here is his comment from another thread.

“I’ve decided to look into developing software which might be able to do this and a couple of other handy bits and pieces for composers…we’ll see how it goes!”

Emmett is looking for feedback so here’s the place for it.

Busted? Thank you Tunesat!

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So, I’ve been having an interesting day. I’ve been reconciling my BMI statements and Tunesat detections for Q2 2010 and Q3 2010. I’ve found about 40 usage detections for a show on ESPNU, a college sports network, that does not show up on my BMI statements. It seems that the music was purchased from a royalty free site. Hmmm… I called ESPN and they are looking into it. It may be that they just have not gotten around to filing the cue sheets but I’m very curious. I will keep you posted.